A day of remembrance

 A day of remembrance.

Thank you Kevin McCarney for your historical analysis. I always appreciate your devotion to history. A must read:

 

"80 years ago at about this time, the 6 Japanese Carriers were steaming due South towards Oahu, the decks were spotted with Aircraft and they were preparing to launch.

Ahead of them, a screen of submarines had launched several midget subs, the one Japanese secret weapon. These subs were approaching Pearl Harbor, trying to penetrate the Submarine netting protecting the harbor.

The ready duty destroyer USS Ward had spotted one early in the morning.

Now as the Sun was coming up, the netting was open to allow a target towing ship to enter the harbor. Tracking behind the target, a look out spotted the periscope of a small sub following the target and towing ship. The Ward took immediate action to engage. Opening fire first with Guns and finally with Depth Charges.

The Ward sank the sub and made a contact report to Naval Headquarters. It was ignored.

At approximately 7:00, a new experimental radar station located on a Mountain at Opana Point, cranked up to operate. It picked up a strong blip of incoming planes approaching from the North. They reported to the Army Information Center and were told it was probably a flight of B-17 Bombers due in that morning.

If these two pieces of information had been acted upon, Pearl Harbor would have been alert and ready for the coming attack.

7:50 am the first Dive Bomber roared down on Ford Island and dropped a Bomb on the ramp. Two naval Officers were getting ready report the pilot and then realized is was an enemy plane. The men headed to the info center and wired a warning. Air Raid Pearl Harbor, this is no Drill.

Out in the harbor the senior Officer afloat sent the same warning along with an all ships sortie order.

It was too late. The first waves of Torpedo Bombers were making their runs down the Southeast Loch towards Battleship row. The US Navy thought an airborne Torpedo attack to be impossible, because the Harbor was too shallow. The Japanese innovated by attaching wooden fins to the torpedoes to keep them from diving too deep.

The Battleships West Virginia and Oklahoma were the Golden targets straight down the Loch. Oklahoma took six torpedoes and capsized in the First 15 minutes. The West Virginia was hit by 8 torpedoes and sank in the harbor. The in Board Battleships Tennessee and Maryland were bottled up. The California took two torpedoes, even though it was a poor target. It is bottom protective hatches were open in preparation to an inspection. California quickly flooded and sank. Arizona and Nevada both took multiple torpedo hits.

As the torpedo attacks continued Horizontal and Di9ve Bombers worked over the airfields and then began their runs on the ships in the harbor. Arizona took a bomb that penetrated the forward magazine and the ship blew up, killing 1100 sailors.

15 minutes in and the backbone of the Pacific Fleet Battleships were burning, sunk or bottled up. Of the 8 Battleships in the harbor, only the Nevada got underway, and it was beached later in the attack instead of sinking in the Channel and bottling up the whole harbor.

By 9:45 the attack was over. 2407 people were dead and the United States was at War.

80 years ago, December 7 1941." -Kevin McCarney

 

 

80 years ago Part 2

 

While the desperate fight was occurring at Pearl Harbor, Washington was a flurry of activity.

Naval and Army intelligence were busy decoding a fourteen part Japanese message. This message was due to be delivered to Secretary of State Cordell Hull at 1:00 pm December 7th. It was tantamount to a Declaration of War.

The American Intelligence Officers in Washington were swifter than their Japanese Counterparts in decoding and delivering the Message.

The Secretary of the Navy tried to send a warning in the Morning of December 7th, but the phone lines to Hawaii were down to solar storms, so the warning went by telegraph to Pearl Harbor, having to undergo it's own coding and decoding. The Message was delivered during the height of the Battle.

Meanwhile at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, the hunt and peck typist for the Ambassador was taking too much time to prepare the statement. The 1:00pm time frame came and went. By the time the document was prepared the bombs were already falling at Pearl.

When the Ambassadors presented their document, Mr. Hull was in no mood to respond to it and promptly dismissed the Japanese Ambassadors.

When Admiral Yamamoto found about the delay in Washington, he knew the Japanese attack would inflame the American people in a way that would not have happened had the message been delivered on time. He knew he had 6 months to defeat the US in the Pacific before the industrial might of the US would turn the tide of Battle in the Pacific.

In fact, it was only 4 months before the US launched an attack against the Japanese Homeland, the Doolittle raid. In May the US Carrier Fleet, stopped the Japanese advance South towards New Guinea by Fighting the Battle of Coral Sea, a statistical draw, but a tactical victory for the Allies.

One month later, in June, the US sank 4 of the Japanese Pearl Harbor Carriers at the Battle of Midway, ending any hopes of the Japanese advance in the Pacific. While the war would be fought for three more years, the Japanese were in essence defeated on June 5, 1942 6 months after Pearl Harbor.

Between the start of the War and the end, the US produced 24 Essex Class Carriers for the Navy. 24 Carriers. It took the Japanese years to produce one carrier.

WWII produced not just the greatest generation of Soldiers, but the industrial might was unparalleled and produced more material than the soldiers airmen and sailors would need.

80 years ago today was the start.